Imitation in Death

Chapter19

A call to Renquist’s office netted her the information that he’d been called out of town, and would be unavailable for the next two days. She went through the formality of making an appointment upon his return, then drove to his house.

The housekeeper gave her the same information.

“You see him leave? You personally?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You watch him walk out the door with his suitcase?”

“I fail to see the relevance of such a question, but as it happens, I carriedMr. Renquist’s luggage to the car myself.”

“Where’d he go?”

“I’m not privy to that information, and would not be free to divulge it if I were.Mr. Renquist’s duties often require travel.”

“I bet. I’d like to seeMrs.Renquist.”

“Mrs.Renquistisn’t at home. Nor is she expected to be until this evening.”

Evelooked past her, into the house. She’d have given a month’s pay for a search warrant.

“Let me ask you something, Jeeves.”

She winced. “Stevens.”

“Stevens. When did the boss get this call to duty?”

“I believe he made the arrangements very early this morning.”

“How’d he find out he was hitting the trail?”

“Excuse me?”

“A transmission come in, a call, a private messenger whiz by, what?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know.”

“Some housekeeper you are. How’d his eyes look this morning?”

Stevenslooked perplexed, then simply annoyed. “Lieutenant,Mr. Renquist’s eyes are not my concern nor yours. Good day.”

She thought about booting the door open when it started to shut in her face, but decided it was a waste of energy.

“Peabody, start the EDD troops doing a search to find out where Renquist went, and how he’s getting there.”

“I guess he’s the one.”

“Why?”

It was Peabody’s turn to look perplexed and she hurried afterEve to the vehicle. “He’s molesting the nanny. He and his wife lied about him being home all morning on Sunday. He’s got a private, locked room in his house, and this morning, he’s conveniently called out of town.”

“So you cross off Fortney, just like that.Peabody, you’re an investigative slut.”

“But it all fits.”

“You can fit it this way, too. He’s molesting the nanny because he’s a royal shit and a perv. His wife’s not putting out, and he’s got a young, pretty girl in the house who’s afraid to say no. They lied because they’re both royal shits who don’t want to be hassled by the police, and saying he was home is more convenient. He’s got a locked home office because he’s got staff who might poke into sensitive material, and a kid he doesn’t want bothering him when he’s working. He’s called out of town this morning because his line of work demands he get up and go when the call comes.”

“Well, hell.”

“If you don’t think it from both ends, you don’t get the right answers. Now let’s see how Breen holds up in formal interview.”

– -«»--«»--«»--

He was waiting, examining the one-way glass whenEve stepped into Interview Room B. He turned, and sent her one of his boyish smiles.

“I know I should be pissed off, and yelling lawyer, but this is just iced.”

“Happy to entertain you.”

“I had to leaveJed with a neighbor though. I don’t trust the droid when I’m not in the house. So I hope this isn’t going to take too long.”

“Then sit down, and let’s get started.”

“Sure.”

She engaged the recorder, recited the case data, and the Revised Miranda. “Do you understand your rights and obligations,Mr.Breen?”

“Oh yeah. Look, I heard the media reports on the attack early this morning.Guy pulled a Bundy. What do you think-”

“Why don’t you let me ask the questions,Tom?”

“Sorry. Habit.” He flashed a grin.

“Where were you this morning at twoA.M.?”

“At home, asleep. I knocked off work aboutmidnight. By two, I was sawing them off.”

“Was your wife at home?”

“Sure. Sawing them off right beside me, but in a delicate, ladylike manner.”

“You think you get points for witty remarks in here,Tom?”

“Can’t hurt.”

Saying nothing,Eve shifted her gaze toPeabody.

“Well, yeah,”Peabody responded. “If you piss her off, it can hurt. Trust me.”

“Are you going to do the good cop/bad cop gambit?” He rocked back in his chair, balancing it casually on its back legs. “I’ve studied all the basic interrogation techniques. I can never figure out why that one works. I mean, come on, it’s the oldest one in the books.”

“No, the oldest one in the books is where I take you into a private room and during our little chat you trip and somehow manage to break your face.”

He continued to rock while he studiedEve. “I don’t think so. You’ve got an attitude for sure, and some innate violent tendencies, but you don’t pound on suspects. Too much integrity. You’re a good cop.”

He spoke earnestly now, obviously high on his own intellect and intuition. “The kind that digs in and doesn’t let go because you believe. More than anything else you believe in the spirit of the law, maybe not the letter, but the spirit. Maybe you take shortcuts now and then, stuff that doesn’t find its way into your official reports, but you’re careful about the lines-the ones you cross, the ones you don’t. And beating confessions out of suspects isn’t one of your shortcuts.”

Now he looked at Peabody. “Nailed her, didn’t I?”

“Mr. Breen, you couldn’t nail the lieutenant if you made the attempt your life’s work. She’s beyond your scope.”

“Oh, come on.” He gave an irritated little twist of his lips. “You just don’t want to admit I’m as good at this sort of game as you are. Listen, when you study murder, you don’t just study murderers, you study cops.”

“And victims?” Eve put in.

“Sure, and victims.”

“All that studying, researching, analyzing, writing… that would hone your observational skills, wouldn’t it?”

“Writers are born observers. It’s what we do.”

“So when you’re writing about crime, you’re writing about who committed it, who it happened to, who investigated it, and so on. In essence, you’re writing about people. You know people.”

“That’s right.”

“An observant guy like you, you’d pick up on nuances, on habits, on what people think, how they behave, what they do.”

“Right again.”

“So, being so observant, so in tune with human nature and behavior, you wouldn’t have missed the fact that your wife’s out having chick sex while you’re at home playing horsey with your kid.”

That wiped the smug look off his face as if she’d hit a delete button. What replaced it was the shock that turned the skin shiny white before the heat of humiliation and rage bloomed.

“You’ve got no right to say something like that.”

“Come on, Tom, your amazing powers of observation haven’t failed you inside your own little castle where a man is king. You know what she’s been up to. Or maybe I should say down on.”

“Shut up.”

“It’s gotta be a pisser, doesn’t it?” Shaking her head, Eve rose, strolled around the table to lean over his shoulder, to speak directly in his ear. “She doesn’t even have the courtesy to fuck another guy while you’re home playing mommy. What does that say about you, Tom? The sex was so boring she decided to see what it was like in the other end of the pool? Doesn’t say much for your equipment, does it?”

“I said shut up! I don’t have to listen to this kind of crap.”

Fists balled, he pushed up from the chair. Eve shoved him down again. “Yeah, you do. Your wife wasn’t at a meeting the night Jacie Wooton was slaughtered. She was with her lover, her female lover. You know that, don’t you, Tom? You know she’s been sneaking off, cheating on you for nearly two years. How do you feel about that, Tom? How does it feel to know she wants another woman, loves another woman, gives herself to another woman while you’re raising the son you made together, keeping the house together, being more of a wife than she ever was?”

“Bitch.” He covered his face with his hands. “Goddamn bitch.”

“I’ve got to have some sympathy for you, Tom. Here you are, doing it all. The house, the kid, the career. An important career, too. You’re somebody. But you go the professional father route, and that’s admirable. While she spends her day in a big office, having meetings about clothes, for Christ’s sake.”

Eve gave a hefty sigh, slowly shook her head. “About what people are going to wear. And that’s more important to her than her family. She ignores you and the kid. Your mother did the same. But Jule, she takes it another step. Lying, cheating, whoring herself with another woman instead of standing up and being a wife, being a mother.”

“Shut up. Can’t you just shut up?”

“You want to punish her for that, Tom, who could blame you? You want to get some of your own back, who the hell wouldn’t? It eats at you. Day after day, night after night. Makes you a little crazy. Women, they’re just no damn good, are they?”

She sat on the edge of the table, close, pushing into his space, knowing he could feel her pushing, even as she felt him vibrating.

“She looks me right in the eyes and lies. I love her. I hate her for that, hate her because I still love her. She doesn’t think about us. She puts that woman ahead of us, and I hate her for it.”

“You knew she wasn’t at a meeting. Did you stew about that while she was gone? And she came home, and went up to bed. Tired, too tired to be with you because she’d been with another woman. Did you wait until she was upstairs, settled in, before you left the house? Did you take your tools down to Chinatown, imagine yourself as Jack the Ripper? Powerful and terrifying and beyond the law? Did you see your wife’s face when you cut Jacie Wooton’s throat?”

“I didn’t leave the house.”

“She wouldn’t know if you went out. She doesn’t pay any attention to you. She doesn’t care enough.”

She saw him flinch when she said it, watched his shoulders hunch as if bracing for hammering blows. “How many times did you go down to Chinatown before you did Jacie in that alley, Tom? A guy like you does his research. How many trips did it take over there to scope out the whores and junkies?”

“I don’t go to Chinatown.”

“Never been to Chinatown? A native New Yorker?”

“I’ve been there. Of course, I’ve been there.” He was starting to sweat now, and the cockiness had been replaced by shaky nerves. “I mean I don’t go there for… I don’t use LCs.”

“Tom, Tom.” Eve clucked her tongue and sat across from him again. There was a pleasant smile on her face and a look of amused incredulity in her eyes. “A young, healthy man like you? You’re going to tell me you never paid for a quick blow job? Your wife hasn’t been inclined to give you much of a bounce for what, close to two years? And you haven’t made use of a perfectly legal service? If that’s true you must be pretty… wrought up. Or maybe you just can’t get it up anymore, and that’s why your wife checked out the competition.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.” His color came up again. “Jule’s just… I don’t know, she just has to get this out of her system. And, okay, so I’ve hired an LC a few times since things have gotten messed up at home. Jesus, I’m not a eunuch.”

“She’s making you one. She’s insulted, belittled, betrayed you. Maybe you were just going out to pick up some stranger. Guy’s entitled when his wife shuts him out. Maybe things got out of hand. All that anger and frustration just built up. Thinking about how she’d lied to you, how she was in your bed fresh from another woman. Lying, cheating, making you nothing.”

She let that single word vibrate in the room, let it slap at him. “You needed some attention, goddamn it. You’ve got a head full of men who knew how to get attention. Knew how to make a woman stand up and take notice. Had to feel good to rip into Jacie, into the symbol of her, to cut out what made her a woman. To make her pay, make them all pay for ignoring you.”

“No.” He wet his lips, and his breath shuddered through them. “No. You’ve got to be out of your mind. Out of your mind. I’m not talking to you anymore. I want a lawyer.”

“Are you going to let me beat you, too, Tom? You gonna let some female cop beat you down? Once you call the lawyer, I win the round. Start whining lawyer, and I charge you with suspicion of murder in the first, two counts. Assault with intent, one count. I get to squeeze your balls blue, that is if you’ve still got balls to squeeze.”

His breath hissed in and out, in and out in the silence that followed. And he turned his face from hers. “I don’t have anything else to say until I’ve consulted with my attorney.”

“Looks like it’s my point then. This interview is ended to allow the subject to arrange for legal representation at his request. Record off. Peabody, arrange for the standard psych exam for Mr. Breen, and escort him to holding where he can contact his legal rep.”

“Yes, sir. Mr. Breen?”

He got shakily to his feet. “You think you’ve humiliated me,” he said to Eve. “You think you’ve broken me down. But you’re too damn late. Julietta already took care of that.”

She waited until he’d gone out, then she walked over and stared at her own reflection in the mirror.

– -«»--«»--«»--

Exhausted, she went back to her office. For once she couldn’t face the buzz of coffee and opted for water. Standing by her stingy window, she drank like a camel, and watched the air and street traffic.

People came, people went, she observed. They didn’t know what the hell went on in here. Didn’t want to know. Just keep us safe-that was the bottom line when they gave the cops inside the building a passing thought. Just do your job and keep us safe. We don’t care how you do it, as long as it doesn’t spill over on us.

“Lieutenant?”

Eve continued to stare out the window. “You got him tucked?”

“Yes, sir. He’s contacted the lawyer, and he’s clammed. He requested a second transmission, re child-care. I, um, I authorized it, with supervision. He contacted the neighbor and asked if she could keep Jed for several more hours. Said he’d gotten tied up with something. He made no request to contact his wife.”

Eve simply nodded.

“You were pretty rough on him in there.”

“Is that an observation or a complaint?”

“An observation. I know you’re going to say I’m an investigative slut, but he’s starting to look good to me. The way you sprang knowledge of the wife’s affair on him, he never recovered from that.”

“No, he didn’t.”

“And pushing the LC angle. The way he fumbled it, denying any association, then breaking down and admitting it to prove to you he was still sexually capable.”

“Yeah, that was stupid of him.”

“You don’t sound too juiced about it.”

“I’m tired. I’m just tired.”

“Maybe you want to take a break before you wrap him up. The lawyer’s got to get here, do the consult. You’ve got an hour anyway if you want to grab a bunk.”

Eve started to speak, started to turn, and Trueheart stepped in. “Excuse me, Lieutenant, but Pepper Franklin is here, wants to see you. I didn’t know if you wanted me to pass her through.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Do you want me to sit in?” Peabody asked her when Trueheart left. “Or go baby-sit Breen?”

“Fortney was your pick before you decided to be fickle. Let’s both hear what she has to say.”

She walked to her desk, sat, and swiveled toward the door when Pepper entered. The actress was wearing enormous silver sunshades and bright red lip dye. Her glamorous hair was pulled straight back in a long, sleek tail. The sunny yellow skinsuit was in direct opposition to the murderous expression on her lovely face.

“Get us some coffee, Peabody. Have a seat, Pepper. What can I do for you?”

“You can arrest that lying, cheating son of a bitch Leo, and drop him in the deepest, darkest hole you can find until the flesh rots off his fucking bones.”

“No need to stifle your emotions in here, Pepper. Tell us how you really feel.”

“I’m not in the mood for jokes.” She whipped off the shades and revealed an impressive shiner. It would be more impressive in a few hours, Eve judged, when the blood finished gathering in bruises.

“Bet that hurts.”

“I’m too mad to feel it. I found out he’s been boffing my understudy. My goddamn understudy. And the assistant stage manager. And Christ knows who else. When I confronted him, he denied it, just kept lying, telling me I was imagining things. Have you got any vodka?”

“No, sorry.”

“Probably just as well. I woke up about three this morning. I don’t know why, generally I sleep like I’m in a coma. But I woke up, and he wasn’t there. I was confused, and concerned, so I did a house scan. And damned if it didn’t tell me he was there, in bed. Well, he wasn’t there, in bed. He’d programmed it to say so, I suppose, if I ever got suspicious and ran a replay, the system would verify that he’d never left the house. Bastard!”

“I guess you looked through the place to make sure it wasn’t a glitch, and he was in the kitchen raiding the AutoChef.”

“Of course I did. I was worried.” Bitterness spewed out like acid. “That was my only thought then. I looked all over the house, and I waited, and I thought about calling the police. Then it occurred to me he might have just gone out for a walk, or a drive, or Jesus, I don’t know. And the security system was faulty. I convinced myself, and I actually dozed off in the chair about six. When I woke up a couple hours later, there was a message on the ‘link.”

She reached into a handbag the size of Nebraska and pulled out the disc. “Do you mind? I’d like to hear it again.”

“Sure.” Eve took it, slid it into her own ‘link, and requested message play. Leo’s voice spilled out.

GOOD MORNING, SLEEPYHEAD! DIDN’T WANT TO WAKE YOU. YOU LOOKED SO BEAUTIFUL SNUGGLED UP IN BED. GOT UP EARLY, DECIDED TO HEAD STRAIGHT TO THE HEALTH CLUB, AND ENDED UP HAVING A BREAKFAST MEETING. YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU’LL RUN INTO. I’VE GOT A PRETTY FULL SCHEDULE, SO I WON’T BE BACK UNTIL AFTER YOU’VE LEFT TO RECORD THAT PROMO SPOT THIS AFTERNOON. YOU’LL BE GREAT! PROBABLY WON’T SEE YOU UNTIL AFTER THE SHOW TONIGHT. I’LL WAIT UP, ‘CAUSE I MISS YOU, BABY DOLL.

“Baby doll, my butt,” Pepper uttered. “He sent the transmission silent, about six-fifteen. He knows I’m never up before seven-thirty, never sleep past eight. He never came home last night but he was covering himself. I went to his office, but he’d called that bimbo he’s probably been doing and told her he wouldn’t be in all day. She was surprised to see me as apparently he’d told her that I was having some sort of emotional crisis and he needed to stay with me. I’ll show him an emotional crisis.”

She rose, saw there wasn’t room to pace, then dropped down again. “I postponed the promo spot, went home, and went through his office. That’s how I found out he’s been sending flowers and tasteful little gifts to his fucking harem, and I found receipts for hotel rooms, names and dates on his personal calendar. He showed up about three, looking all surprised to see me, all delighted.” Her bruised eye flashed fury. “He’d had a couple of cancellations, and wasn’t this lucky? Why didn’t we go upstairs to bed, and get lucky again.”

“I’m assuming you told him his luck had run out.”

“In spades. I hit him with not being home all night, and he tried to make me think I’d been dreaming or sleepwalking. When I showed him the copies I’d made of his personal receipts and date book, he had the nerve, the fucking nerve, to act hurt and insulted. If I didn’t trust him, we had a serious problem.”

She paused, lifted a hand to indicate she needed a moment. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing coming out of his mouth. So smooth, so practiced. Well. Well.”

“I don’t have any alcohol in here,” Eve said into the silence. “How about a hit of coffee?”

“Thanks, but just some water, if you don’t mind.”

While Peabody moved to take care of it, Pepper picked up her shades by the earpiece, twirled them. “No point in going into all the ugly details, but when he realized I wasn’t buying, when I explained to him that it was done, he was out-out of the house, the office, the expense account, and my life-the shit hit the fan. And his fist hit my face.”

“Where is he now?”

“I have no idea. Thanks,” she said when Peabody handed her some water. “I expect you to find him, Dallas, and arrest him. I’d have worse than a black eye if I hadn’t had a security droid on standby. I’d done that because I wanted the droid to escort him upstairs, wait while he packed up what belonged to him, and escort him out. Instead, when I called out, it came in while Leo was coming toward me, ready to hit me again. It hauled him up and heaved him out.”

She drank, slow sips, until the glass was empty.

“He said vicious things to me,” Pepper continued. “Crude, vicious, horrible things. It was my fault he was seduced-his term-seduced by other women because I was so controlling, even in bed. How it was past time he showed me who was in charge around here because he was through taking orders from… from some bossy cunt.” She shuddered. “He was screaming that sort of thing at me before the droid came in. I was terrified. I didn’t know I could be terrified, not really. I didn’t know he could be the way he was in those few awful minutes.”

“Get her some more water, Peabody,” Eve ordered when Pepper started to shake.

“I’d rather be mad than scared.” She dug into the bag again, found a lace-edged handkerchief, and mopped at her streaming eyes. “I’m all right when I’m just mad. I know about the woman who was attacked last night, and the report speculated it’s connected with two murders-the ones you asked me about. And I thought, Oh God, oh God, I thought, Leo could have done it. The Leo I saw today could have done it. I don’t know what to do.”

“You’re going to file a complaint, and we’re going to bring charges of assault. We’ll track him down and bring him in. He won’t touch you again.”

This time she only stared into the water Peabody gave her, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m afraid to be alone. I’m ashamed that he’s made me a coward, but-”

“You’re not a coward. You just had some guy who outweighs you by a good thirty sock his fist into your eye and threaten to do more. If you weren’t shaken up, you’d be stupid. You’re not stupid because you came in and you’re bringing charges.”

“What if he killed those women? I slept beside him, I made love with him. What if he did those horrible things, then came home to me?”

“Let’s take it one step at a time. Once we’ve done the paperwork, I can arrange for an officer to stay at home with you if you’d feel safer having a cop as well as your security droid.”

“I would. I very much would. But I’d need him, or her, to come to the theater. I have a performance at eight.” She smiled wanly. “The show must go on.”

– -«»--«»--«»--

By the time she’d sent Pepper and her police escort off to Broadway, the stress and fatigue had a headache swirling behindEve ’s eyes. She’d put out an APB on Fortney, and the dragnet was already spreading.

She met with Breen’s attorney, let the preliminary complaints roll off her. But when he demanded his client be allowed to return home and tend to his minor child, she didn’t argue. In fact, she surprised the attorney by postponing further questioning until nine the next morning.

And she assigned two men to stake out Breen and his house overnight.

She sat back down in her office, already past the end of shift, and thought about coffee, about sleep, about work.

When McNab jogged in, he looked so bright and energetic, it hurt to look at him.

“Can’t you ever wear anything that doesn’t glow?” she demanded.

“Summertime,Dallas.Guy ’s gotta glow. Got some news should put a glow back in your cheeks. Fortney booked a first-class seat on a shuttle to New L.A. He’s en route.”

“Quick work, McNab.”

He shot out his index finger, blew on it. “Fastest EDD man in the east. Lieutenant, you look well and truly beat.”

“Nothing wrong with your vision, either. TakePeabody home. Make sure she gets a good night’s sleep, which is my delicate way of saying restrain yourself from rabbiting together half the night. She needs a clear and alert mind tomorrow.”

“You got it. You might try that good night’s sleep yourself.”

“Eventually,” she mumbled, then started the process of extraditing Fortney and arranging for local authorities to meet him when he stepped off the shuttle.

Peabodybounced in. “Lieutenant, McNab said you said-”

“I should just put in a revolving door because everybody just walks in and out as they damn well please anyway.”

“The door was open. It’s almost always open. McNab said I was relieved, but I haven’t yet contacted authorities in New L.A. re Fortney, or transmitted the warrant.”

“It’s done. They’ll pick him up, ship him back, and have promised to take just enough time to ensure he’ll spend the night in a cell. He won’t wrangle a bail hearing until morning.”

“It’s my job to-”

“Shut up,Peabody. Go home, get a meal, get some sleep. The exam starts oh eight hundred, sharp.”

“Sir, I believe it might be necessary to postpone the exam as this case is at a crucial point. Fortney-and I see that my initial instincts there were right-will have to be interviewed, and you’ll want to interview Breen and try to arrange an interview with Renquist to tie the matter up. I feel it’s inappropriate for me to take a half day, minimum, for personal business during this stage of the investigation.”

“Got the jitters?”

“Well, yeah, that, too, but-”

“You’ll take the exam,Peabody. If you have to wait another three months to take it, one of us will jump off the nearest building, or more likely, I’ll just pitch you off. I think, somehow, I can muddle through the day without you.”

“But I think-”

“Report at Exam Room One, oh eight hundred, Officer. That’s an order.”

“I don’t believe you can actually order me to take…” She trailed off, swallowed hard whenEve lifted her gaze. “But, ah, I understand the spirit of the statement, sir. I’m going to try not to let you down.”

“Jesus,Peabody, you’re not going to let me down whatever you do on the exam. And you’ll be-”

“Stop.”Peabody squeezed her eyes closed. “Don’t say anything that’ll jinx it. Don’t say it, or any sentence with the word luck in it.”

“You’d better go take a pill.”

“I might.” She gave a shaky smile. “Don’t wish me the ‘L’ word, okay, but maybe you could do like a signal or a sign. You could do this.”Peabody showed her teeth in a grin, widened her eyes to show enthusiasm, and punched out her fist with her thumb sticking up.

Leaning back,Eve cocked her head. “What is that? I’m supposed to signal you to stick your thumb up your ass?”

“No! It’s thumbs-up. Jeez,Dallas. Thumbs-up. Never mind.”

“Peabody.” Eve rose, halting her aide before she could stalk out of the office. “Commencing at oh eight hundred hours, I expect you to kick exam butt.”

“Yes, sir. Thanks.”